Hearty salads serve as full-meal partner to BBQ

Barbecue and/or ready-to-eat entrees — such as fried chicken — often include a melange of bowls, dishes and go-withs that take up table space and fill plates to overflowing. Today’s column will offer a savory taste of history along with suggestions for one-dish salad offerings that cut way down on the dish-washing. Enjoy!

Composed Party Salads have never gone out of style. Our vintage illustration of a hearty layout (clipped from an old Swedish cookbook) is the ne plus ultra of a man-pleasing smorgasbord-type salad (ladies not excluded of course) that’s appropriate for a chicken, steak, halibut or salmon barbecue. Crusty bread or rolls are all that’s needed for a satisfying offering. Ingredients follow:

Swedish Smorgasbord Salad

Garbanzos (rinsed and drained), pepperoncini, canned pimientos or sliced red bell peppers, steamed/chilled green beans, button mushrooms (canned OK), rolled pickled fish and/or sardines, strips of Havarti (or Swiss, etc.,) cheese, cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced garlic sausage in rounds and/or strips, artichoke hearts, black olives and celery.

Definitely something for everyone! Arrange on a large platter with two or three large serving forks and/or salad tongs for quick self-serving. No dressing needed. Next, one of my own concoctions.

Tuna/Veggie Platter

On a large, attractive platter or shallow bowl, arrange the following: Center — A large can (or more) of solid-pack tuna in olive oil, drained and turned out onto a lettuce leaf*; surround with individual mounds of ripe tomato wedges, blanched green beans, rinsed and drained canned garbanzo beans, drained pickled beet slices, whole black olives, marinated artichoke hearts. Prepare the following dressing: Whisk together 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 Tb. Dijon mustard, 5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, drizzle over veggies and have cruet at hand for further use by guests. Coved salad bowls, a salad fork and napkins are all that’s needed.

*If you wish, slice a small head of lettuce into a bed of strips that can be lifted away with servings of tuna.

I’ve enlarged the following recipe from an earlier column for a little extra pizazz. Enjoy!

Mixed Citrus Salad with Orange/Ginger vinaigrette(Serves 8)

2 heads butter lettuce OR mixed red or green leaf lettuces, rinsed well, patted dry

½ teaspoon EACH sea salt and ground black pepper

¼ cup orange-ginger vinaigrette (recipe follows)

1 lemon

4 limes

2 navel oranges

2 blood oranges

1 ruby grapefruit

6 mandarin oranges

Kumquats (2 or 3 per person if available)

Garnish: Snipped fennel fronds

Dressing: (To be made the day before)

Orange-Ginger Vinaigrette:

(about 1 ½ cups)

½ cup fresh orange juice

½ cup virgin olive oil

¼ cup honey

¼ cup champagne vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

½ teaspoon fresh grated ginger

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and whisk to combine. Place in airtight container and refrigerate at least 24 hours before use.

With a sharp paring knife, slice all the citrus in 1/3-inch thick rings, cutting all in half (for easy finger-eating). Frisee lettuce with a sharp knife into narrow shreds; toss into a medium bowl with the salt, pepper and the ¼-cup of orange-ginger vinaigrette.

Arrange greens on a large coved platter to cover about half of it lengthwise; arrange fruits artfully, garnishing with chopped fennel, drizzle with some of the remaining dressing and serve with good salad servers so that each guest may easily place a helping of frisee and accompanying fruit on their plate. (You may serve it already composed on individual salad plates if you wish). The remaining dressing may be refrigerated for up to a week tightly covered.

Of special note, in my Fourth of July column, I suggested a mixed tomato platter, still one of my favorite “easy” but classic offerings. Don’t overlook the huge, magnificent but often misshapen antique tomatoes. I recently (finally!) made it to the Sandpoint Farmers Market and saw some of those grotesque beauties. Don’t pass them by! I bought three such treasures, and while they are difficult to slice, I simply cut them into wedges and bite-size pieces. Incidentally, they peel easily — perhaps due to their full-ripeness. Scatter some among the larger slices on the platter and also consider adding whole little yellow pear tomatoes and a few grape tomatoes. I don’t recommend cherry tomatoes since they’re often too juicy and squirty.

A mixed fruit platter is appealing too, with clusters of three or four kinds of grapes, small wedges of mixed melons, strawberries, halved pears and other fruits in season at hand for a gorgeous offering to enhance any product of the BBQ grill. Too, it negates the necessity of dessert if you’re so inclined. I rarely use apple or banana slices because of their “browning” habit, but a little “bath” in a shallow dish of lemon juice negates that and adds a bit of piquant flavor.

Note to readers: I have a favor to ask to anyone who can help with a conundrum. In my July 11 column, I offered cookie recipes from Mama’s faded old files from the 1920s and ‘30s, written in ink in her spidery hand. The final one called for “½ cup BFC, melted, cooled” and I simply typed it as written, having no idea what it was. I’ve now had three phone calls asking just that! Does anyone out there know? One caller said she checked online but could find no information — and looking at the recipe, it seems maybe it could be melted butter — but it was all even before my time and I’m clueless! If anyone finds out, please call me.

Valle Novak writes the Country Chef and Weekend Gardener columns for the Daily Bee. She can be reached at bcdailybee@bonnercountydailybee.com. or by phone at 208-265-4688 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.